At our 570th Art Gathering, we are visiting the studio of artist Hasan Cingiz.
Born in Bodrum, Muğla, artist Hasan Cingiz completed his undergraduate studies in Sculpture at the Bodrum Faculty of Fine Arts, Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, and has been pursuing his professional art career in his studio in Bodrum since 2005. For approximately twenty years, the artist has shaped his creative practice around the relationship between line, part, space, and whole. Moving between different disciplines such as sculpture, painting, ceramics, and installation, Cingiz views the diversity in materials and techniques not as independent periods, but as a continuation of the same idea on different surfaces and dimensions.
The first traces of this continuity are evident in his "Gypsies" series produced on paper. The lines that constitute the figures cease to be merely external outlines limiting the body; they work as independent parts that circulate within the figure, are cut, and approach and move away from each other. Looking at the iron rods he uses in his metal sculptures today, the same linear understanding is evident. The line, once moving across paper, gradually breaks away from the surface and moves into space. Thus, Cingiz's metal sculptures are read not so much as a break from painting, but as the transition of the line into the third dimension. The pen is replaced by an iron rod, the act of drawing by the process of bending, cutting, and welding; the line is no longer merely seen, but a physical structure that can be walked around, viewed from within, and redrawn through its shadow.
The artist's understanding of the figure is determined not by presenting a completed and closed body, but by voids, interruptions, and distances between fragments. Instead of directly showing the whole, Cingiz creates space for its completion in the viewer's mind; this approach forms the basis of his long-standing concepts of "Transition" and "Incomplete Wholeness." "Incomplete Wholeness" in his practice is not merely a formal choice, but a situation that allows the parts to participate in the whole through their interrelationships. The resulting whole never completely closes; it continues to visibly carry its voids and fragmentation. In metalwork, this idea takes on a physical character: iron rods are bent, cut, and welded together, and the structure, composed of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of independent pieces, appears as a single figure from a distance, but reveals its own fragmentation upon closer inspection. The sculpture thus exists not so much through mass as through line, space, rhythm, and the relationships between the parts.
The production process develops not through the application of a predetermined form, but through a direct relationship with the material. Bending, cutting, welding, joining, and, if necessary, dismantling are not only technical stages but also parts of the artist's way of thinking. Especially in large-scale works, the artist's body is also involved in the production process; movement, repetition, and physical struggle become the memory of the work. Human and animal figures, drawing from personal and cultural stories, become carriers of broad concepts such as belonging, memory, transformation, togetherness, and incompleteness. Although the figure, material, and scale change, the relationship between the parts and the search for form through line continue. From this perspective, Cingiz's nearly twenty years of artistic production represent less a linear change and more a re-asking of the same question with different materials: Where does a part end, and where does the whole begin?
The artist has participated in many important exhibitions and events both in Turkey and abroad. His solo exhibitions include those at the İdart Art Gallery in 2009 and 2013, the "Gypsies" exhibition at Marmaris Blue Port Shopping Mall in 2015, solo exhibitions at the CNR Boat Show in 2015 and 2016, studio exhibitions in 2019 and 2021, and solo painting and sculpture exhibitions at the Hakkı Tonguç Art Gallery and Artemisia Art Gallery in Dibeklihan Culture and Art Village in 2023. Among the group exhibitions, the following can be mentioned: the 2006, 2008, 2017, 2018, and 2020 alumni exhibitions of Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University Bodrum Faculty of Fine Arts; the 2007 Marmaris Sand Sculpture Exhibition; the 2010 Bodrum Artists Group Exhibition; the 2011 Galeri5 Young Artists Exhibition; the 2012 İdart Art Gallery Group Exhibition; the 2022 Pandemix Group Exhibition; the 2022 Art Contact Istanbul; and the 2022 Bodrum Art Fair. Furthermore, the artist exhibits his works on an international platform; most recently, he participated in a sculpture symposium held in Poland, continuing his production abroad. Cingiz, whose works are included in domestic and foreign collections, continues his interdisciplinary approach, exploring the dialogue between line and space in his art.
Wednesday, September 2nd
12:00-13:00